Academic All Star - Conor Youngs

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wbng sports

May 12, 2011Updated May 12, 2011 at 10:22 PM EDT

(WBNG Binghamton)

An Oneonta high school junior has an absolute passion for baseball. Some day he hopes to work for a major league team, as a player or a front office executive. And part of that drives him in the classroom as well. Action Sports reporter Gabe Osterhout introduces us to this week's Academic All-Star, Conor Youngs.

He may not be a senior. And he may not be vocal. But make no mistake about it, junior Conor Youngs is a leader of the Oneonta varsity baseball team. He says baseball is his favorite sport, because of the lessons it teaches you.

"I like the difficulty. I mean in baseball, you're never going to succede every single time. You're going to fail and it just teaches you a lot because you're only going to be able to get the ball in play one third of the time so you learn a lot from it." Youngs absolutely loves to learn.

And he makes sure to say his academics come first. He recently missed the start of a baseball game, to finish an advanced placement exam. Coach Joe Hughes says he's the type of kid all coaches and teachers dream about.

"One, he's a quality individual. He's a good kid. He's polite, he's well mannered. He comes to class ready to learn. He comes to practice ready to play. You can't ask anymore from a kid than Conor Youngs. Great student, great athlete and we're forturnate he's part of our program." The student with the mid 90s average says he takes the same approach to baseball as he does his school work. Just do things to the best of your ability.

"You've got to put your best effort and you've got to work as hard as you can every practice and every game, same with the classroom. You've got to do the same thing every day. You can't show up late, you can't sleep in class, you've just got to be ready to go."

Youngs isn't sure where he'll go to college but he plans to study economics. That way, if his playing career doesn't get him to the major leagues, maybe his degree will...as the member of a front office of a major league baseball team. And that's why Youngs is this week's Academic All-Star. Gabe Osterhout, Action Sports.